It’s Roses all the Way at Chedigny

I may have arrived too late for Chedigny’s official Rose Festival but there was still an abundance of flowers to be seen in this lovely village, including roses.  Think a mellow stone Cotswold village transported to the Loire and you get an idea of its charm. It all started when the mayor got fed up with people driving through Chedigny without stopping – en route to somewhere else.  He persuaded the villagers to plant the fronts of their houses with climbing roses and other flowers, created off-street parking so they (and visitors) had no need to park on the street and introduced traffic calming. Clever man – the villagers embraced the idea enthusiastically – and now Chedigny is a destination with various events taking place that draw the visitors.

I love the way they have matched the paintwork to this Vitex agnus-castus

Even the traffic-calming is horticultural in Chedigny

I stayed at www.leclosauxroses.fr – a very comfortable restaurant with rooms in the heart of the village. The food was delicious. I was much relieved to be assured that the bells on the nearby church stop ringing at 11pm and don’t start again until 8am the next morning. This is a place to relax, there’s little in the way of shops other than a boulangerie, a book shop and a few discreet art  and craft galleries – the highlights are the plants and the traditional lavoir.

I did discover a plant I now have a serious yen for – Campsis grandiflora ‘Morning Calm’. It isn’t available in the UK, but I am on the search for a source.  Ok, it can grow to 10metres, but I have a perfect spot where I can let it rampage away and reward me with its glorious flowers.

Campsis grandiflora ‘Morning Calm’